Alec Baldwin Felt Like ‘Grandpa Figure,’ Says Rust’s Patrick Scott McDermott (Exclusive)

• Patrick Scott McDermott features in the ensemble of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which opened on Broadway April 22
• He also costars with Alec Baldwin and Josh Hopkins in Joel Souza’s Western Rust, in theaters May 2
• McDermott tells PEOPLE about working with Baldwin and teases the Stranger Things stage prequel

Meet Patrick Scott McDermott: one of the few actors who can say they’ve opened a Broadway show and made a feature film debut back-to-back. 

The 16-year-old star features in one of this season’s buzziest Broadway productions, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which opened April 22 at New York City’s Marquis Theater.

Conceived by executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of the Netflix hit, it’s a prequel set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Ind., in 1959, decades before the characters at the center of the 1980s-set series. 

A mere 10 days later, McDermott’s film Rust, led by actor-producer Alec Baldwin, has opened in theaters. In the Western from writer-director Joel Souza, the young actor plays Lucas Hollister, a grieving teen in 1880s Wyoming whose accidental murder of a neighbor kicks off an unlikely alliance with Baldwin’s notorious outlaw Harland Rust — who turns out to be Lucas’ grandfather. 

“From the first day I met him, he kind of welcomed me in [and] felt like a grandpa figure,” McDermott tells PEOPLE of Baldwin, 67. “He is an actor at this caliber, and then me, this being my first movie! So for me, it was kind of surreal and insane that I was working with Alec Baldwin, and he was telling me stories from past movies he’d done. He was telling me about Tim Burton and 30 Rock.”

The Emmy winner “was generous and giving me room to learn from him,” recalls McDermott. The two costars were roughing it “in the middle of nowhere” to capture the authenticity of the old West, he adds. “I remember I had dirt being put in my fingernails, in my toenails too, every single morning in the trailer. And I think I was scrubbing that out for about a month after.”

Turning to costar Josh Hopkins, who plays Rust’s sheriff Wood Helm, he adds, “Since you’ve all been doing this for so long, it was kind of just natural.”

“This is not hyperbole when I say this,” responds Hopkins, 54. “I cannot believe that this was Patrick’s first film. He’s incredible in this movie, so nuanced… I really do think in years down the road, I will be saying how honored I am I got to work with Patrick. He’s incredibly talented.”

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Now an ensemble member in First Shadow eight shows a week, McDermott (who made his Broadway debut as an understudy in 2021’s Flying Over Sunset) is relishing a whirlwind introduction to the spotlight.

“The [Stranger Things] fans are insane,” he says with a laugh. “They are so committed, and they cheer, and it’s like their energy brings our energy up.”

First Shadow is “unlike anything you will ever see on a stage,” the young actor promises. “These effects are crazy. It’s like you’re watching a TV episode right in front of your eyes live.”

Tickets to Stranger Things: The First Shadow are now on sale. Rust, costarring Travis Fimmel, Frances Fisher and Jake Busey, is in select theaters and on digital.